New Delhi, Nov 27 (IANS): Nothing seemed above board, literally speaking, when Spanish authorities seized a submarine suspected to be carrying around 3.5 tonnes of cocaine off the Spanish coast, a media report said on Wednesday.

Authorities said it was for the first time that they had come across the use of a sub for smuggling drugs into Spain, Sky News reported.

It was carrying $121 million (around 863 crore ) worth of cocaine and departed from Colombia, another media report said.

Two Ecuadorian men were arrested whereas the third suspect managed to escape.

There was no confirmation as to the contraband's or the sub's origin or intended recipient, but police suspected they were from Colombia.

The submarine was sunk deliberately by the smugglers when police tried to intercept it in the Aldan inlet in the Galicia region in the weekend. The 20-metre sub was towed into the port at Aldan in the northeast of the country and refloated with the help of divers and balloons.

One package of cocaine had been recovered from the refloated sub on Monday but many more were on board.

In September, a sub with five tonnes of cocaine worth about £133m (around 122 crore) was captured by the Florida coast guard in the eastern Pacific.